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Posts Tagged ‘Education’

What a great photo this is that I just had to Share and comment on. I LOVE the photo for its tongue in cheek humor, implied sexuality, obvious voyeurism & exhibitionism and innuendo. Plus, I love the grammar lesson too that so many need. See the bottoms of the shoes.

Now we need a photo that explains the difference between DON’T and DOESN’T which so many people are too oblivious or don’t seem to know.

Even worse, some blame ‘auto-correct’ when, in fact, if they even type DOESNT without the apostrophe, auto-correct would fix that to DOESN’T.

The funny thing is how native English speakers would make fun of foreigners or foreign-born people, especially low-income immigrants, for their accents or supposed poor English.

These days it is foreign-born people who still speak proper English compared to the bast majority of my fellow Americans. On top of that, almost every year it is always immigrant minority kids that win major spelling competitions.

I do not see things getting any better for the standards of education, including English, what to say of Maths and Science, with Donald Trump in the White House and his ignorance-embracing mindset and policies that make George W. Bush seem like a genius.

I love and respect incredible single parents who go all out to provide for their kids.

I have known and loved several single moms who were in my life at one time or another, who were more amazing as struggling single parents than a rich two-parent family could be.

But I also sometimes see people, including single parents, thinking that not granting every wish to a kid is some sort of crime or failure.

That is not true. Enough kids who had everything in life end up with messed up lives, and many who had little in childhood later rise to greatness. It is good, loving AND tough parenting, not saying Yes to everything, that sets children’s future.

For my 27 years living in America and even in my own relatives in Pakistan, I saw kids basically controlling parents. Here in America I see parents trying to be kids’ best friends.

My siblings and I are thankful that we had parents who provided us our every need but did not grant every wish. They went above and beyond, even though we heard No plenty of times.

But, in the long run, they made the most important wish come true and were our best friends. They set us up for lives that, despite the usual ups and downs, could not have been more blessed.

I saw this Share on my beloved beautiful friend Sara’s wall and had to share and comment.

I love flying and I love being in the media. But I cringe when I see idiocy in news reporting of aviation topics.

One recent example was the otherwise decent news organization CNN posting a video of what was an excellent crosswind landing by a commercial airliner as “Airplane makes bumpy sideways landing” as if some major accident almost happened.

I wish my aviator & news anchor friend Miles O’Brien was around CNN to educate the idiots in media reporting on aviation, who can’t tell the difference between a well-executed high crab-angle (to compensate for strong crosswinds) landing and a bad bumpy landing.

These reporters would probably report a video of a chef doing a flambé dish as a dangerous kitchen fire almost destroying a home. Idiots!

But that raises another question that one of my followers asked me on my FaceBook post…. Why do pilots use crabbing, versus sideslip, when landing?

Like everything in flying, it is one of those topics that can bring out many different opinions that can even sometimes vehemently agree. Neither is perfect, one is preferred or at least recommended by airliner manufacturers like Airbus, though a combination of both is usually needed.

Keep in mind, I am barely a hobby pilot, much less some sort of aviation expert. But, this topic gets a lot of confusing responses. Only the high-wing versus low-wing debate gets people more riled up (which is just slightly less than the old Mac versus Windows flame wars! {Note: I STILL love MacOS and still despise Windows though it has become much less puke-worthy since W7)}.

Here is my explanation. Let me know in your comments if you agree, disagree, or have more insight to add.

IMHO, as a perpetual student pilot, there are 2 primary ways to make crosswind landings.

Crabbing (nose pointed to the side but body moving in straight line along the runway centerline) appears “more scary” in videos like this but provides wings level. That is the recommended approach from manufacturers like Airbus.

The other option, Sideslip (or cross-control, with the nose pointed straight down the runway centerline) is the wing low approach, because one wing is lower as the plane is not wings-level.

More and more planes are designed with their control surfaces and engines seeming to be closer and closer to the ground.

e.g. Thanks to my late beloved father’s giving me experiences as a child most people even in developed countries did not have until later in life, I first flew in Pakistan International AirlinePIABoeingB707 (and later derivation B720) airliners as a 6-years old unaccompanied child in 1969, and many major airliners had 4 jet engines then and until much later.

As the designs moved to two much more powerful engines instead of four, their size and closeness to the ground also increased. So in modern planes the bank angle becomes a much greater issue to keep in mind to avoid striking the wingtip, engine, or even control surfaces on the runway.

However, neither approach may be enough to be used alone in strong crosswinds like 30 knots.

In a crab-only landing the crab angle of 10-15 degrees may not be de-crabbed quickly enough to avoid side-loads on the landing gear causing structural damage.

In a sideslip-only landing the 10-15 degrees of bank angle will most likely cause a runway strike. (These angles are given as examples for illustrative purposes only. Please check your own aircraft’s manuals for specific information).

So, in such situations the best pilots are likely using a combination of the two methods based on the plane, the airport, the runway, runway conditions (dry vs wet or contaminated), the approach speed, etc.

I hope that helps explain why we often see commercial planes using wings level crabbing approaches for typical crosswind landings.

Keep in mind I am a perpetual student pilot and do not even play a commercial pilot on TV. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below.

“Afalaa Tatafakaroon”. Will You Not Think? That is a line in the Holy Quran .

I pray Oh God, Help Us Understand The Secrets Of Science & The Universe, So We Understand You!

I am sure other holy books have similar statements about using our minds. But for some reason, a lot that modern organized religions seem to be do is make people close their minds and blindly follow whatever some smooth talking preachers built up as ‘The Truth‘ over the last few centuries. The truth is, we are far from understanding the ultimate truths of the Universe .

I am sure you are among the many educated people who believe in Science but also believe in God the OmnipotentCreator. “Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God” is an interesting article though it does not have enough information to fully live up to its headline, but it is a useful point of reference in The Wall Street Journal.

I’ve always believed that not only is the truth out there, but also that is it not going to be one or other extreme of Science No God versus God No Evolution etc. Instead, it will be a combination or the two, or likely, even of things we do not even yet comprehend which do not fall under science or religion .

The more I studied science and even engineering , the more ridiculous it seemed to me to believe in pure random creation of the universe, purely randomly leading to Earth ‘s creation, purely randomly leading to life and purely randomly leading to humans.

How many times do I have smash some rubber, glass, steel, carbon fiber, and plastic together to create a perfect Ferrari ? I refuse to believe that any of my beloved beautiful loves and their gifts of unconditional love submitted to me, or for that matter, the perfection of Charlize Theron, are random accidents. 😉

Nor do I blindly believe that some texts collected over the last 2000 years when people did not even understand the nature of science, are somehow the most accurate depictions of the Universe.

They are powerful books with stories to help us ideally be better human beings (if you take out the parts about killing others that almost all the books of the time command).

No, people, the earth is more than 5000 years old, just like the sun does NOT revolve around the earth. There IS evolution that takes place and genetic changes and mutations that are being recorded by science based on our current state of life and the planet. But, no, evolution is likely not the source of the perfect imperfection we call human life.

In their insistence of There Is No God, it seems that even supposedly people gets almost as rabidly fanatical as any Bible-thumping persons who believe that God created the Earth 5000 years ago or something like that, refuting evolution, while believing a man could walk on water and bring the dead back to life, and more.

Many believe in angels too. The truth is likely a combination of things is a blend of the two and maybe even more. Maybe God is the Creator of this Universe, as the grand designer of his project… maybe Angels are his engineers, and project managers,… maybe the day he shuts down the project for recycling is the day of judgement.

But, then, who does he work for? Who created HIM? And what giant box does the Universe fit inside that may be part of a larger Multiverse , which may be one of many in an Omniverse … and so on.

Knowing the infinite depth of our ignorance, even our inability to fathom the concepts that would entail, is another of the gifts of the Creator, to use our MINDS to even measure what we do NOT know.

We should not just blindly parrot things we were religiously brainwashed into believing as children . We must, instead, try to figure out the mysteries of science, if we are to ever figure out the mystery of the universe, which in turn may help us get closer to understanding the mystery of the most supreme scientist of all, God!

What a week it has been in the news cycle. Never a dull moment. And the politicians in the news are not vying to win the Best or Smartest politician vote, but to prove how unbelievably dumb they are and can be.

Let’s start with Hillary Clinton. I remember when Bill Clinton became President, most considered Hillary the brains behind the operation. She was also always the most deeply enmeshed in any of their non-sexual scandals. But for someone so experienced, and so full of hubris, she has shown herself neither smart, nor savvy.

First she was dumb enough to use a private email server to run classified information through. Then she was dumber to deny that. Then she was moronic in doubling down and saying she did nothing wrong and refusing to apologize. And now, patently obviously showing how polls and hunger to get the Democratic party ticket are her only guiding light, she is now apologizing. Too little, too late, too insincere.

In the past I did think she was a more experienced candidate when Obama and she were competing for the ticket. I thought he lacked experience compared to her. He won. And served two terms. Regardless of her viability in the past, I do not think she is worthy of being President.

I thought Bill Clinton was a great President, regardless of the inexcusable sexual escapades he is infamous for. His (not) having sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky, did not destroy the economy or cause the deaths of tens of thousands as George W. Bush and Darth Cheney did, while destroying the economy too. So hearing another Bush name coming up also irritates me.

I am personally opposed to the political dynasty concept that Jeb Bush (whom I liked as a politician more than his brother or father) or Hillary Clinton are the ‘only viable candidates’ that both political parties seem to follow.

This is America, not some third world country where one family or two families rules for decades.

It is time for the unexciting Bush and the completely untrustworthy Hillary Clinton to be sent packing. They can go write books, make money giving speeches, but please, spare this country more from those two houses of cards.

My Democrat friends, Hillary will sink you all. And, my Republican friends, if you do not dissociate yourselves from people like Mike Huckabee, the only politician who has proven himself absolutely shamelessly desperate even more than Hillary, you will give the Democrats another win.

Mike Huckabee is actually supporting a buffoon government employee, that moronic two bit clerk Kim Davis (the one with four husbands and children conceived with others while married to someone else) claiming her FAITH keeps from following the law on gay marriage. If you read her actual background you would ROTFL (roll on the floor laughing) at the mind numbing surreality of her stance.

No matter where I stand on that issue, now that it is the law of the land, it has be respected. If she does not like it, she should quit her job. Or stand aside so others can.

But, wait! Huckabee is all over her. She is his desperate Hail Mary (no pun intended) attempt to touchdown with the low IQ crowd that cannot differentiate between a personally odious woman breaking the law and her claiming she is good Christian who is the victim of religious persecution. Seriously!? So if a Muslim gets elected clerk in a county, would it be OK for him or her to issue four marriage licenses to people? If someone else becomes clerk, would it be OK for them to say their religious beliefs keep them from issuing marriage licenses to interracial couples?

To show how stupid people have gotten, to ensure even greater ignorance, and even greater intolerance, and even greater likelihood to falling for liars and false logic, the people in that dumb county have decided to close schools in support of this repulsive woman! Way to go!

But it is not all bad news. I see a silver lining. Kim Davis and Huckabee are a match made in heaven I say. Huckabee can be her husband number five perhaps, because he definitely does not match what we need in a candidate for President.

God SAVE the United States…..from these dumb, dumber and dumbest candidates.

It boggles my mind how a once proud and capable country like Pakistan has worked extra hard to become a nation of self-loathing, miracle-waiting, pedagogue-worshipping, people who refuse to take responsibility for their actions, expect Allah to step in with a magical leader to fix the problems the people themselves cause and accept, while blaming everyone on the planet for the issues.

A majority of my fellow Pakistanis, including supposedly educated ones, are the only people who can detect things that even scanning electron microscopes or the Hubble Telescope cannot see. They see conspiracies everywhere. If there was a Nobel Prize for conspiracy theories, Pakistan would have dozens of recipients of the award.

Sadly, Pakistan is the only country I know of that goes out of its way to malign the only two Pakistanis to win Nobel Prizes. They spit on Dr. Abdus Salam (Physics, contributing to understanding of the forces that make the universe work) because he is from a non-Muslim sect. They despise Malala because obviously she must have won the Nobel Prize (that she deserved to win solo last year even more than shared with someone this year) as a tool of the anti-Islam West and Zionist forces.

These Pakistanis come across sounding like Taliban apologists. The irony is that the first word that was spoken in The Message of God to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was “Iqra” — READ. How tragic that evil Taliban and their Al-Qaeda cohorts malign true Islam by shooting education seeking teenager girls in the head and blowing up children and schools in Pakistan.

Even more hilarious than the funniest monologue by late Robin Williams or any standup comic in the world are the faux-rational questions people ask, or reasons they give, for why Malala won the Nobel Prize. They see a massive global conspiracy of everyone on the planet in what happened. For them, here is the absolute truth which I am certain will make perfect sense to them.

One evening Malala and her family were sitting at dinner and said, how can we get rich and famous.

The father said, hey, why don’t we arrange to have you shot in the head and it will all work out great. She said, Awesome!

They flew to Switzerland and had a meeting with the Rothschild family, which obviously leads the group of Jews that run the new world order. They got into a conference call with Benjamin Netanyahu (sadly a real life war criminal) and President Obama, who agreed to fund the project to insult Pakistan.

Then they invited every member of the Nobel Prize committee from Sweden to Switzerland for high tea, to get agreement they would give her the prize as an insult to all Muslims.

A Jewish doctor came and examined Malala’s head and pointed to the exact spot she should be shot with a gun.

She was so happy… knowing she would soon be able to make speeches, after a little bit of a headache of course!

The family then took a briefcase of Dollars from Obama (who happens to have had a Muslim father) and a gun from India’s Modi (sadly, a murderous politician in real life, responsible for a massacre of Muslims in India).

They took out a help wanted ad in Taliban Daily Noose. They picked the applicant to shoot Malala in the head.

The rest, as they say, is (a) history (lesson).

I repeat what I have said many times before. “A nation that does not recognize its own problems, that does not take control of its own destiny, where every single individual knows, believes, and acts to do what he or she can to change and improve their part of society and their nation, is bound to continue into a death spiral. Where stood what was once a great nation all that would remain is a pile of waste, destruction, chaos and blame.”

Until Pakistanis wake up and smell the reality, it starts with the man in the mirror, Pakistan will continue to be populated by people whose entire energy and creativity is spent on coming up with conspiracy theories that are funnier than George W. Bush’s idiotic utterances, or Joe Biden’s retarded faux pas; that are more complex than the inside of Optimus Prime in Transformers; and more creative than the “Final Unifying Theory Of The Universe.”

If these people actually believe in all their conspiracy theories, I am told there is more funding available so they can volunteer to have their teenage daughters shot in the head to become famous and rich.

My fellow Pakistanis, please stop being a head case. Stop maligning people that bring far more honor to our country and religion than the Taliban whose actions you seem to justify or the pseudo-religious and populist people you are following as leaders. Stop those who seek to destroy what opportunities we have to become the honest, responsible, educated, hard working, God-fearing but tolerant people our Prophet would smile on, and make Pakistan a country Quaide Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah would be proud of having founded.

What are YOU going to do starting today, to be a better person, and to make your part of Pakistan a better place?